The Internet is an Illusion.

[Apparition of Jack]

So obviously we’re all aware of both the collective grief / outrage Charlie Kirk’s assassination has caused. Regardless of your politics, it’s deniable it’s caused some sort of reaction. We have Polish politicians holding a minute of silence for him, after all.

Ignoring the politics of it, I think one thing this has highlighted for me is just how damn illusionary everything we see on the internet is. 

Charlie Kirk is being heralded as some sort of public saint, akin with MLK or Gandhi. Don’t get me wrong, his death was horrible and shouldn’t have happened, but at the same time… why was this one random guy so important? 
 

Ive never met him. I have no real idea who he is. He has no real qualifications. Why am I aware of his existence? I doubt he’s even set foot in my country. 
 

Why are figures like Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and, to give even the left it’s due, Hasan, Destiny, Sam Seder etc so widely known and influential? I mean, I know the literal reason - they’re YouTube stars - but I mean in a more sociological / cultural sense.

Why did we decide, collectively, that a handful of randos who might as well be Seasame Street puppets with how authentic they are on camera can have the power to shape the thoughts and actions of millions, if not billions of people around the world? 
 

Charlie Kirk wasnt my friend. He wasn’t even my rival. He was literally some guy whom I have virtually no cultural, familial, national, economic etc ties to whatsoever. He might as well be the Sultan of Timbuktu for all of his relevance to my life. Again, his passing is tragic, but then… so our countless other deaths. In fact, there are probably human rights activists being killed right now in third world countries who are far more humane and impactful than Charlie ever was who’ll end up dying in pure obscurity.

I don’t know who Donald Trump is. To me he’s that asshole from “the Apprentice.” Why is he considered so damn important to my life? (Yes I know he’s president and all that, but he runs the country like a reality show.) 

I don’t know. This whole thing has me thinking. Why have we let what are essentially human avatars dictate our ideas and opinions for so long? Whatever happened to like, reality? 

[Elliott]

We haven't, a lot of people have, most haven't. I'm American and I guarantee none of my family knew who Kirk was. Touch grass as they say. This is so blown up and only happened in the first place because of the circus in the whitehouse, all the names you listed actually are popular because of the white house clown show.

[theleelajoker]

@Apparition of Jack

Good Points. 

It's crazy how social media works. But it's the same mechanism as always, just stronger.

Before that it was TV, before that it was movies (Riefenstahl) and pictures, before that it was newspaper and books, and before that it was... story telling?

I guess people are looking so much for justification and someone to blame on the outside they are happy for anything and anyone keeping them from looking inwards. 

I am so happy that I grew up as kid before smartphone and social Media became big - at least I remember a time without that stuff. It's funny because I only know half the people in your list above

[LordFall]

It seems to me like you're only now becoming aware of the weight that social capital brings to our society. If you don't have status or influence you don't matter much, even if your opinions and character traits are similar to someone who does. 

Content production and marketing are important skills to master if you wanna be one of the ones shaping society. It's called being at the cause not the effect. 

[BlueOak]

The internet is cerebral; it gives voice to thought (or these days image and narcissism). Thought is fleeting, often ungrounded when it first appears. With tiktok or youtube, people say whatever is on their mind with little thought. 'They' or the concept of what they are to you, can only be seen in the pattern they keep repeating. That brings some inherent dangers, because this is for a return or profit, they tailor their responses to earn that profit, and thus we can see even more of an illusion is generated that people identify with, which wasn't grounded in reality in the first place. Industries set up around this fantasy, and they too try to ground the illusion in a reality it isn't fit for.

This covers many modern-day issues.

*If it wasn't for profit it might be for X, and X isn't guaranteed to be much better. 

Edited Tuesday at 09:10 AM by BlueOak

[Hojo]

If you know how illusory the internet is you can take that concept and apply it to real life and the exact same thing is happening. We are communicating but we are not close to eachother. If you are standing beside someone and talking to them the same thing is happening irl as what is happening on the internet with us right now.